Welcome

Welcome to the POZ Community Forums, a round-the-clock discussion area for people with HIV/AIDS, their friends/family/caregivers, and
others concerned about HIV/AIDS. Click on the links below to browse our various forums; scroll down for a glance at the most recent posts; or join in the
conversation yourself by registering on the left side of this page.

Privacy Warning: Please realize that these forums are open to all, and are fully searchable via Google and other search engines. If you are HIV positive
and disclose this in our forums, then it is almost the same thing as telling the whole world (or at least the World Wide Web). If this concerns you, then do not use a
username or avatar that are self-identifying in any way. We do not allow the deletion of anything you post in these forums, so think before you post.

The information shared in these forums, by moderators and members, is designed to complement, not replace, the relationship between an individual and his/her own
physician.

All members of these forums are, by default, not considered to be licensed medical providers. If otherwise, users must clearly define themselves as such.

Forums members must behave at all times with respect and honesty. Posting guidelines, including time-out and banning policies, have been established by the moderators
of these forums. Click here for “Am I Infected?” posting guidelines. Click here for posting guidelines pertaining to all other POZ community forums.

We ask all forums members to provide references for health/medical/scientific information they provide, when it is not a personal experience being discussed. Please
provide hyperlinks with full URLs or full citations of published works not available via the Internet. Additionally, all forums members must post information which are
true and correct to their knowledge.

Finished Reading This? You can collapse this or any other box on this page by clicking the
symbol in each box.

Welcome to Am I Infected

Welcome to the "Am I Infected?" POZ forum.

New members -- those who have posted three or fewer messages -- are permitted to post questions and responses, free of charge (make them count!). Ongoing participation in the "Am I Infected?" forum -- posting more than three questions or responses -- requires a paid subscription.

A seven-day subscription is $9.99, a 30-day subscription is $14.99 and a 90-day subscription is $24.99.

Anyone who needs to post more than three messages in the "Am I Infected?" forum -- including past, present and future POZ Forums members -- will need to subscribe, with secure payments made via PayPal.

There will be no charge to continue reading threads in the "Am I Infected?" forum, nor will there be a charge for participating in any of the Main Forums; Meds, Mind, Body & Benefits; and Off Topic Forums. Similarly, all POZ pages, including our "HIV Transmission and Risks" and "Am I Infected? (A Guide to Testing for HIV)" basics, will remain accessible to all.

NOTE: HIV testing questions will still need to be posted in the "Am I Infected?" forum; attempts to post HIV symptoms or testing questions in any other forums will be considered violations of our rules of membership and subject to time-outs and permanent bans.

To learn how to upgrade your Forums account to participate beyond three posts in the "Am I Infected?" Forum, please click here.

Thank you for your understanding and future support of the best online support service for people living with, affected by and at risk for HIV.

I went for a normal physical for school about maybe 2 years ago and during the genital check up. I am not sure if the MALE doctor wore gloves or not when he checked my penis and sac, crotch area. Reason I am not sure is because I was looking up since it was pretty awkward in my opinion.

But let's just say he DIDN'T wear gloves during the genital, penis, sac area check. Would I get HIV from this?

Are doctor's allowed to work if they have HIV?

From what I know about the doctor is that he has a family and kids, etc.

It was a family doctor. In the United States btw.

I am MALE, btw. And not sure but I think I did masturbate maybe a day or 2 days prior to going to the checkup.

Am I at risk for HIV from this experience? and I REPEAT, he had NO GLOVES on, I'm guessing barehands after coming from another patient, I believe he washed his hand with soap before the examination.

But let's just say he had NO GLOVES, DIDN'T WASH HANDS from LAST PATIENT, and then checked my genital region.

So summary of scenario:- No Gloves- Did not wash hands from patient- Barehands checking GENITAL region, penis, sac, crotch area.

Transmission in healthcare settings. Healthcare professionals have been infected with HIV in the workplace, usually after being stuck with needles or sharp objects containing HIV-infected blood. As for HIV-positive healthcare providers infecting their patients, there have only been six documented cases, all involving the same HIV-positive dentist in the 1980s

How was this possible? And since my situation was with a healthcare "professional", which is a DOCTOR, was I at risk?

Your situation does come under the heading of casual contact. Hiv is NOT transmitted via skin to skin contact.

Hiv is transmitted via unprotected anal or vaginal intercourse, through sharing needles to inject drugs and from mother to baby during birth and very, very, very rarely through GIVING blowjobs.

You need to be using condoms for anal or vaginal intercourse, every time, no exceptions until such time as you are in a securely monogamous relationship where you have both tested for ALL STIs together. To agree to have unprotected intercourse is to consent to the possibility of being infected with a sexually transmitted infection.

Have a look through the condom and lube links in my signature line so you can use condoms with confidence.

Anyone who is sexually active should be having a full sexual health care check-up, including but not limited to hiv testing, at least once a year and more often if unprotected intercourse occurs.

If you aren't already having regular, routine check-ups, now is the time to start. As long as you make sure condoms are being used for intercourse, you can fully expect your routine hiv tests to return with negative results. Don't forget to always get checked for all the other sexually transmitted infections as well, because they are MUCH easier to transmit than hiv.

Use condoms for intercourse and you will avoid hiv infection. It really is that simple.

"...health will finally be seen not as a blessing to be wished for, but as a human right to be fought for." Kofi Annan

Nymphomaniac: a woman as obsessed with sex as an average man. Mignon McLaughlin

HIV is certainly character-building. It's made me see all of the shallow things we cling to, like ego and vanity. Of course, I'd rather have a few more T-cells and a little less character. Randy Shilts

"...health will finally be seen not as a blessing to be wished for, but as a human right to be fought for." Kofi Annan

Nymphomaniac: a woman as obsessed with sex as an average man. Mignon McLaughlin

HIV is certainly character-building. It's made me see all of the shallow things we cling to, like ego and vanity. Of course, I'd rather have a few more T-cells and a little less character. Randy Shilts

Your situation does come under the heading of casual contact. Hiv is NOT transmitted via skin to skin contact.

Hiv is transmitted via unprotected anal or vaginal intercourse, through sharing needles to inject drugs and from mother to baby during birth and very, very, very rarely through GIVING blowjobs.

You need to be using condoms for anal or vaginal intercourse, every time, no exceptions until such time as you are in a securely monogamous relationship where you have both tested for ALL STIs together. To agree to have unprotected intercourse is to consent to the possibility of being infected with a sexually transmitted infection.

Have a look through the condom and lube links in my signature line so you can use condoms with confidence.

Anyone who is sexually active should be having a full sexual health care check-up, including but not limited to hiv testing, at least once a year and more often if unprotected intercourse occurs.

If you aren't already having regular, routine check-ups, now is the time to start. As long as you make sure condoms are being used for intercourse, you can fully expect your routine hiv tests to return with negative results. Don't forget to always get checked for all the other sexually transmitted infections as well, because they are MUCH easier to transmit than hiv.

Use condoms for intercourse and you will avoid hiv infection. It really is that simple.

Ann

So you're saying I'm worried over nothing right?

Despite the doctor not wearing gloves to examining the penis, sac area during the yearly physical examination?

Also, a different scenario.

I was walking at a board walk and so happens to be a man walking close to me, I noticed that around his neck to mouth had these really noticable "bumps" they were fleshy colored. Could these have been an STD he had or something? And would contact with him or just being next to him give it to me?

Worried, your questions reveal a fundamental lack of knowledge about how HIV is transmitted. That's something which is not acceptable because we are going to be living with this epidemic for a longtime to come.

There was not even remotely any risk of HIV transmission in either of the scenarios you have brought up. The reason you didn't find anything about either specifically in the lesson on this site is because neither of your incidents was one in which HIV infection was possible. There was no exchange of bodily fluilds.

You seem to be rather unduly concerned about having your genitals handled by your doctor, but that's a separate issue for you to sort out. We have bodies and sometimes we have to be in uncomfortable situations for medical purposes. That's just how it goes sometimes.

Make sure you know the basics about HIV. Most importantly, the only real risk for sexual transmission is via unprotected vaginal or anal intercourse. So long as you always use a condom for those activities you're "covered" so to speak.

This is not an HIV situation. Only your lack of knowledge about HIV is alarming.

Despite the doctor not wearing gloves to examining the penis, sac area during the yearly physical examination?

Also, a different scenario.

I was walking at a board walk and so happens to be a man walking close to me, I noticed that around his neck to mouth had these really noticable "bumps" they were fleshy colored. Could these have been an STD he had or something? And would contact with him or just being next to him give it to me?

Scott,

You're rapidly getting into crazy territory here. You are worrying over nothing. You don't have be concerned about HIV transmission from the examination performed by your doctor nor the boardwalk scenario. Please re-read the advice you've been given in this thread and the Welcome Thread.

You're right he should have worn gloves. Not because an examination of this nature poses any risk for HIV transmission (it doesn't) but universal cross infection procedures dictate that he should. It's just hygienic for clinicians to wear gloves when examining their patients. Especially the nibbly bits. It's called best practice.

Universal cross infection procedures are a set of rules that clinicians use to prevent the transmission of infectious diseases in a clinical setting. It includes basic things like washing hands between patients, not reusing equipment like needles and syringes, sterlising other equipment, wearing gloves when conducting examinations or performing invasive procedures.

Don't fret babe. Your doctor didn't place you at risk of HIV infection from the examination you've described.

Is it possible to get any STDs/HIV infections through toilet paper rolls? Like in a public bathroom sort of deal or even family home, when a female uses the toilet paper to wipe after peeing or taking a dump, they may take more peices of paper in the process, and not cleaning hands so sometimes touching the rest of the roll with their hands after touching their vagina area.

So could there still be possible STD infection or HIV infection in the roll of toilet paper next to the toilet after the uses?

Like if you happen to use the rest of the toilet paper to masturbate for male. Still on ROLL but after someone used some of it, as in touching the "clean" portion of the roll, which you happen to take.

Listen, stop with all of these what if situations, please. HIV is a fragile virus and it's transmitted in very particular ways, all of which are thoroughly covered in the lesson on transmission and further in the lesson on testing. If you just follow some very simple guidelines about safer sex you will be fine.

You can forget about all of these fancy scenarios your mind is coming up with. We get this kind of stuff all the time -- cum and/or possibly blood on doorknobs, nicks in a barbershop, splashes of bloody water, etc. All they speak to is not getting what the real HIV issues are and frankly, perhaps a lack of experience sexually.

Even STD's though or any bacteria from the other person using the toilet paper? If they're using more than one "wipe" as in going for more rolls while their hands have touched the sexual organ regions?

Scott, if you are really worried you have an STI, then please by all means go and get tested for what ever STI's you believe you may be at risk of having contracted, regardless of what you have been told here, because you certainly aren't happy with the information you have been provided thus far.

I was at the computer and got out real quick and cut myself on the legs of the chair, and it bled. Now I had someone else get me a bandaid while I was washing the blood off. Is it possible to spread HIV this way? I don't have HIV but it's still blood. Someone helped me put it on since it was at a really akward angle for me to put it on. Also I put my leg on the bathroom sink and I'm worried that little droplet of blood might have gotten on the sink.

Would it be possible for someone to get HIV if they helped me put a bandaid on?

Would it be possible for someone to get HIV if they touched the blood on the sink?

Is it possible for some infection of HIV from your own blood?

I don't have HIV, btw, but can HIV come from someone without HIV from touching blood?

I don't even know where to begin. You display a fundamental lack of understanding, something that might be more understandable if this were your first visit to this website. I beginning to wonder if you aren't playing games here.

You cannot transmit a virus you do not have. Hiv infection must come from a person who has hiv infection. Hiv does not spontaneously create itself out of thin air - or thin blood for that matter.

"...health will finally be seen not as a blessing to be wished for, but as a human right to be fought for." Kofi Annan

Nymphomaniac: a woman as obsessed with sex as an average man. Mignon McLaughlin

HIV is certainly character-building. It's made me see all of the shallow things we cling to, like ego and vanity. Of course, I'd rather have a few more T-cells and a little less character. Randy Shilts

I now have bandaids over the "wounds". A day after the incident, I masturbated and then took a shower. If there was still cum around my penis, and the water from the shower "carried" the remaining cum from around my penis and "drizzled" down my leg and around the "wound" could that do any harm?

I realize no HIV, but could I get some sort of infection from having possibily cum get into my wound?

I agree with Ann. Assuming for a moment that the poster is not messing with the forum, s/he has concerns that go so far beyond our ability to educate that I see no purpose in participating in further conversation.

Not to be harsh... but certainly not wanting any of the people here to waste more precious time.

Logged

"Many people, especially in the gay community, turn to oral sex as a safer alternative in the age of AIDS. And with HIV rates rising, people need to remember that oral sex is safer sex. It's a reasonable alternative."

Okay, I am really sorry for coming back with yet another situation I was in.

Just today I ate a leftover hoagie in the fridge which I ate 2/3 the day before. This morning I wake up to eat the 1/3 left of the hoagie and something in the hoagie was "stuck" onto the border of one of my tooth and the gums, and it went into my gums like a needle. I got it out afer a few tries and looked at it and couldn't make out what it was really, it was a bit red, probably due to it going into my gums, probably? I'm not sure.

But now I am worried that there could have been something on this sharp object in my hoagie. Possibly with HIV blood or maybe something else?

This was just a italian hoagie where there shouldn't have been anything hard in it. It didn't look like a needle but more like "crab shell" thin and sharp object.

Yes, I realize all my posts containing these "risks" are really silly, but I'm really worried.

Just say this DID have HIV on it or something else bad contained like poison, could it survive in the refridgerator for maybe 3-6 hours?

Hiv is not something you need to worry about in normal, day to day activities. Hiv is primarily spread through unprotected anal or vaginal intercourse and that's pretty much it. Hiv quickly becomes damaged and unable to infect when it is outside the human body.

As long as you use condoms for anal or vaginal intercourse, every time, no exceptions, you will avoid hiv infection. It really is that simple, Scott. Read through the condom and lube links in my signature line so you know how to use those condoms correctly. Buy a few and practice with them so you know what you're doing when the time comes.

Please learn about these things Scott. While nothing you've brought to this website has been a risk, you need to know what the REAL risks are and how to protect yourself.

"...health will finally be seen not as a blessing to be wished for, but as a human right to be fought for." Kofi Annan

Nymphomaniac: a woman as obsessed with sex as an average man. Mignon McLaughlin

HIV is certainly character-building. It's made me see all of the shallow things we cling to, like ego and vanity. Of course, I'd rather have a few more T-cells and a little less character. Randy Shilts

I know this isn't exactly HIV, but since most people here knowledgable about STDs, could somebody explain this?

When I was younger, probably 2-3 years ago I was showering and I was cleaning my penis, note I am circumsized. And I was cleaning the little foreskin near the head of the penis and there was this "white" stuff there. I easily cleaned it out, but was wondering what this was? I no longer have this there anymore and it was sort of a one time finding I guess. I don't remember what it looked like or felt like but only thing I can describe would be white "cheese-like".

Could this have been a buildup of something from not cleaning that part of the penis over the years? Since I didn't do thorough cleaning before that day.

Or does this seem like some kind of STD?

Note though, I used to masturbate with this hand lotion, could leftovers that got stuck there have caused this?

Keep in mind, I've seen this only once and my penis doesn't have this anymore.

"...health will finally be seen not as a blessing to be wished for, but as a human right to be fought for." Kofi Annan

Nymphomaniac: a woman as obsessed with sex as an average man. Mignon McLaughlin

HIV is certainly character-building. It's made me see all of the shallow things we cling to, like ego and vanity. Of course, I'd rather have a few more T-cells and a little less character. Randy Shilts

Okay, I just went to a cardiologist today and had an echocardiogram done. The ultrasound thing where they apply a jelly onto you.

But I heard it's not supposed to hurt but at times where she put the thing for a longer time, I felt this pricking sensation. Not needle prick but it was "pricking" me. Sort of like as if it was a little bumpy.

I dont know why but now I'm worried I got something injected into me. Or does pressure on your bones with something like the thing where the person puts over your chest hurt as if a pricking sensation?

And is it possible for a doctor to purposely put HIV or other disease into you by doing a echocardiogram? I'm not sure if I had it before, but after I saw near chest/stomach area a few red dots as if a needle was there. Yet during the actual echocardiogram I felt no needle. But could the gel applied on your chest cause me not to feel it?

Are there different ways of injecting stuff into people besides a needle? Like can it "seep" in through skin?

I urge you to seek professional mental health counseling. This forum cannot help you.

Logged

"Many people, especially in the gay community, turn to oral sex as a safer alternative in the age of AIDS. And with HIV rates rising, people need to remember that oral sex is safer sex. It's a reasonable alternative."

What type of hepetitis shots are given from birth to teenage years, etc.?

And if you get these shots, is it still possible to get any form of hepititis?

And is it possible to tell if you have had a needle in you? Like whats the characteristics of the needle wound?

We are an HIV/AIDS website. We don't deal with the hepatides. The tone and style of your questions (especially the last one) demonstrate that you need to seek the assistance of a mental health professional.

Hepatitis vaccinations are not given as part of childhood immunisations. You have to request them specifically.

The help you need is outside the scope of this website. I suggest you seek the assistance of a mental health care professional to help you deal with your concerns. There is nothing more we can do for you here.

If you insist on continuing to use this forum as a clearinghouse for your anxieties, I will be forced to give you a time out as detailed in the Welcome Thread's posting guidelines.

"...health will finally be seen not as a blessing to be wished for, but as a human right to be fought for." Kofi Annan

Nymphomaniac: a woman as obsessed with sex as an average man. Mignon McLaughlin

HIV is certainly character-building. It's made me see all of the shallow things we cling to, like ego and vanity. Of course, I'd rather have a few more T-cells and a little less character. Randy Shilts

I was at the beach and my brother picked up a rusty nail on the sand. He threw it away on the beach, but I'm worried if he could have gotten Tetanus from this exposure.

He says he didn't step on it or anything, and from what I saw, I saw no wounds.

But will touching a RUSTY NAIL cause Tetanus?

And do infants-childhood shots given by doctors include vacination against Tetanus? And at what age is it given?

Also, is Tetanus something that you can get without even knowing you have it? Like HIV for example, some people may have it for years before even knowing they have it. Or is Tetanus something you'd know in a matter of days?